Wong recently sat down with DiversityInc CEO Luke Visconti during a Q&A session at Wells Fargo to discuss the company’s outreach to the Asian community.

How do you see the demographics of the Asian community that Wells Fargo serves changing?

Nancy Wong: Immigrants actually are very entrepreneurial and many of them are business owners, so the way that Wells Fargo has been serving the Asian community is by really focusing on the financial needs of Asian businesses. We know how important it is for businesses to strive and therefore we develop programs that help the small-business community to strive and provide them access to tools, financial education, resources that can actually help them to really make their business go to the next level. A lot of the businesses have ties with Asian countries and actually have transpacific characteristics, so we offer specific products and services such as treasury management, trade finance and APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) service because we know that these services would help to really meet their needs.

What is Wells Fargo doing to reach a larger footprint with Asian-Americans?

Nancy Wong: The company has a very long history of serving diverse communities and we have developed a lot of marketing assets. We really believe in building out the assets in terms of advertising, in terms of marketing collateral, and what we are able to do when we have a larger footprint is to scale a lot of these assets from the West Coast footprint to the entire footprint. So that’s a lot of efficiency. We have the ATM network, which is already serving multiple Asian languages, so all the language marketing materials, such as financial-education brochures, we are able to use all that for different Asian communities across the entire footprint.

What marketing strategies work particularly well with the various Asian segments and what should be avoided?

Nancy Wong: Being consistent is very important in serving the Asian community, and we show respect to the communities by celebrating Asian heritage on a consistent basis coast-to-coast. During holidays and festivals we also run special promotions to make sure that we are offering a particular celebratory offer to our Asian customers. So being culturally relevant, being in the community and respecting the culture is very important.

What role does Wells Fargo’s Asian Connection resource group play in your efforts?

Nancy Wong: A lot of our resource-group team members of Asian descent, they are not just corresponding with customers on a daily basis but they are actually living in the Asian community. A lot of the insights that they are able to gather from the community help us improve our products and services. The other thing that we do very, very consistently is that we organize a lot of volunteer work. We have a hands-on banking-education seminar and we mobilize all our Asian Connection team members to go out and actually teach financial literacy to the Asian community. We set a goal to reach 2,000 different community groups across the country to make sure that as a financial institution we are offering the right financial-education programs to our communities.

The post Multicultural Marketing Case Study: Wells Fargo’s Asian Outreach appeared first on DiversityInc.

Jae Requiro remembers her friend’s story vividly: Following a meeting in which her friend was the only Asian-American woman, a male colleague said to her, “You’re not at all like my Asian wife, you speak up.”

“It was a big slap in her face. She didn’t even know what to say to him,” says Requiro, who is Filipino-American and a manager of diversity consulting and inclusion strategies at Toyota Motor North America, No. 41 on The 2012 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list.

Stereotypes are like a slap to the face because they shock and sting. They are usually uttered without much forethought and reveal the speaker’s ignorance. And in corporate settings, they can reveal why someone is excluded from after-work networking events or passed over for promotion. Asian-American executives too often find themselves fighting to disprove the “model minority” stereotype, a group that works hard, is rarely controversial, but ultimately is not “American” enough for leadership opportunities.

Here are seven questions and comments Asian-American executives have frequently fielded from coworkers and why you should not repeat them:

“You must be the IT person.”

Linda Akutagawa, who is Japanese-American and CEO and president for Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics (LEAP), says that too often it is assumed that Asian-American executives are not leaders but support staff. For Asian-American executives who recently immigrated to the United States, the problem is two-fold. Not only are they stereotyped as not leadership material, but their cultural norms are interpreted by U.S.-born executives as proving the stereotype.

“In America, the leadership skill is defined by how confrontational, direct and aggressive you are,” says Sameer Samudra, IT Audit Director for Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa at Cummins (No. 18).

Samudra, who was born in India and came to the United States as a student in 1998, remembers a boss questioning his commitment to work because he was reserved during meetings. “We respect authority and come from a hierarchical culture,” says Samudra. “Our leadership style considers how well the team members get along, so there’s an emphasis on team building and learning in the process.”

“You aren’t like them” or “You don’t act very Asian.”

There are many variations to this comment. Akutegawa has an Asian-American friend who for a significant amount of time had organized a regular tennis outing with a group of white executives. One day, one of the executives turned to her friend and said, “I didn’t know people like you play tennis.” Akutegawa remembers her friend saying, ”He was shocked.”

“Asian Americans are not risk takers.”

“My response to that comment is ‘Why do you think we all gave up our old country and came to this country?’ We walked away from our families and a comfortable life and came to this country. That’s a huge risk,” says S.K. Gupta, an aerospace and defense executive and Volunteer Consultant for Essen Associates.

“Where are you from? No, where are you really from?” or “When are you going to go home?” or “How often do you go home?”

These questions assume that all Asian-Americans are recent immigrants. “We call that the double-sum question,” says Akutegawa, who points out that especially among Chinese- and Japanese-Americans, there are families who have lived in the United States for at least six generations. “They ask you the first time and you say ‘California,’ but that’s not what they’re looking for. When you’re asked the second question, it’s truly frustrating.”

“I was born in the [San Francisco] Bay Area. I can drive home in a few hours,” is how Requiro answers questions implying she is a foreigner.

“Oh, you speak English good!” or “Do you speak your language?”

“Don’t tell me I speak English good,” says Requiro. “I should because I was born here and it’s my first language.” And often, parents who are immigrants do not teach their children their native tongue in order to ensure their children assimilate into American culture. Requiro’s parents did not teach her Tagalog, the Philippines’ native language. “I’m Filipino-American, of course I speak English,” says Requiro.

“The implication is that we’re all foreigners and saying ‘good’ reveals their own ignorance of English,” says Akutegawa.

Also, inherent in being surprised that an Asian-American speaks English well is the assumption that an Asian-American who speaks with an accent has difficulty communicating. Gupta’s boss, early in his career, gave him a low score on a performance review because he said Gupta was difficult to understand when he got excited. Gupta took the criticism in stride. He enrolled in an accent-reduction class, but after a few classes, the teacher kicked him out. The teacher said he didn’t have a problem communicating or being understood. His boss couldn’t hear the words coming out of Gupta’s mouth because he only heard his accent.

Now Gupta says, “I use my accent as an ice breaker. I make speeches and presentations all the time and I often start by saying, ‘If some of you detect an accent, please remember that I didn’t have one until I came to this country.’”

“You’re not a minority because all Asians are rich and successful.”

This comment reveals the damage stereotypes cause. Gupta remembers a time 20 years ago when he was told that Asian-American executives should be last to receive a raise because they don’t need money.

Asian-Americans currently occupy just 2.1 percent of corporate board seats among Fortune 500 companies, up from 1.2 percent in 2005. 

“You’re not Asian, you’re from India.”

For the record, “Asian-American” is a general term for Asians and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) living in the United States. According to U.S. Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting, Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders refer to people who can trace their original background to the Far East, Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, or the Pacific Islands, including native Hawaiians.

Gupta adds that the Asian-American community needs to come together under its common cultural traits. “We Asian-Americans need to figure out how to substitute the individual configurations for the overall Asian-American culture,” says Gupta.

Why? Because many believe that Asian-Americans are too disparate as a group for marketing efforts.

“At IBM, I attended an Asian industry conference about two years ago. A senior leader said it’s too hard to do anything with Asian-Americans because they’re not one homogenous culture,” Gupta recalls hearing. “My response was that our culture may not be one but our values are the same, so let’s focus on the community’s values rather than the different cultures.”

The post 7 Things NEVER to Say to Asian-American Executives appeared first on DiversityInc.

“Wonder of travel?” More like, “I wonder what the diversity of the creative team and the diversity of the marketing department that approved this commercial was?” And if you’ve had to fly on American lately, the real question is, “I wonder if the plane will take off within a day of when it’s supposed to?” What baloney.

–Luke Visconti

The post Asians, Chop Those Vegetables! Women, Serve Those Men! The Baloney Meter Returns! appeared first on DiversityInc.

• 8 percent Black: a total of 43
• 6 percent Latino: a total of 32
• 5.6 percent Asian: a total of 30
• 18.9 percent women: a total of 101. Read facts about the congresswomen.
• Four Arab Americans and one Caribbean American were also elected to Congress

Diversity in religion and sexual orientation also increased: The first Buddhist senator, Senator Mazie Hirondo; the first Hindu representative, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard; the only Unitarian Universalist, Congresswoman Ami Bera; the first openly gay senator, Senator Tammy Baldwin; the first nonwhite LGBT, Congressman Mark Takano; and the first openly bisexual woman and only atheist, Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema, were also sworn in.

Among the new faces of the 113th Congress are: 4 Blacks, 10 Latinos, 6 Asians, 5 LGBTs and 24 women. Plus, four of the incoming congressional representatives are of the Millennial generation, born in the 1980s.

Changing Diversity: What Will Election 2016 Look Like?

Will this diverse mindset continue to make its way into the upper echelon of the political parties?

Although diversity made significant headway in the recent election, the overwhelming majority of congressional representatives (80 percent) are white and male. In the House, for example, there are 42 Blacks, 35 Latinos, 11 Asians and 2 American Indians, according to House Press Gallery, but together that accounts for only about one-fifth of all representatives. Moreover, the House has 81 women, which is 18.6 percent of the total number of representatives, but the United States is 50.8 percent women.

But that’s poised to change in the next election. Anticipated diverse candidates on the Democratic side for the 2016 presidential race include three women: former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Senator Elizabeth Warren. The GOP’s rising stars include three women: Senator Kelly Ayotte, Governor Nikki Haley and Governor Susana Martinez; three Latinos: Senator Marco Rubio, Governor Brian Sandoval and Martinez; and two Asians: Governor Bobby Jindal and Haley.

The 2012 election results show that voters, particularly Millennials, are more than ready for a change and are looking for leadership that more accurately reflects the country’s increasingly diverse population.

Non-Hispanic white populations will decrease drastically by the year 2050, according to Census Bureau data, from 71.6 percent to 46.3 percent, and Latino populations will increase significantly from 11.3 percent to 30.3 percent. Asian populations will grow to 6.3 percent from 4.4 percent, and Black populations will tick up from 12.8 percent to 12.9 percent. More than half (50.4 percent) of babies born in the United States in 2011 were Black, Latino or Asian, per the Census Bureau.

Additionally, Pew Research reports that Asians are the fastest growing demographic, growing 43.3 percent between 2000 and 2010. Comparatively, the Latino population grew 43 percent, and the Black population grew 12.3 percent. The white population grew 5.7 percent during the same period.

Millennials are the most racially and ethnically diverse demographic in history, per Pew Research: 18.5 percent are Latino; 14.2 percent are Black; 4.3 percent are Asian; 3.2 percent are mixed race or other. Only 59.8 percent are white, the lowest percentage to date. In the 2012 election, 60 percent of individuals ages 18-29—which totals 19 percent of all voters—cast ballots for Obama. And just as new and youthful mindsets about diversity helped win this past election, it’s this more-inclusive generation of Millennials that will continue to be a driving force in deciding the outcomes of future elections.

The post Most Diverse Congress Sworn In appeared first on DiversityInc.

The report, Putting Men’s Health Care Disparities On The Map: Examining Racial and Ethnic Disparities at the State Level, documents the persistence of disparities between white men and men of color—and among different groups within men of color—on 22 indicators of health and well-being, including rates of diseases such as AIDS, cancer, heart disease and diabetes, as well as insurance coverage and health screenings. It also documents disparities in factors that influence health and access to care such as income and education.

This new analysis provides state-level data for men of many racial and ethnic populations that have not been available before. Among the findings:

• American Indian and Alaska native men had higher rates of health and access problems than men in other racial and ethnic groups on nearly all health indicators. They also had the highest poverty rate and second worst educational attainment, unemployment rate and incarceration rate.
• More than four in 10 Latino men lacked insurance (46 percent) and a personal health care provider (49 percent), and more than a fifth (22 percent) had no doctor visit in the previous year due to cost. Latino men also had the lowest median household income, the largest wage gap compared to white men and the lowest educational status.
• Black men had much higher rates of poverty and incarceration and lower rates of high school graduation than whites. The most striking health disparity was that nationally Black men were more than seven times as likely as white men to be newly diagnosed with AIDS, with a rate of 101.5 new AIDS cases per 100,000 Blacks ages 13 and older compared with 13.5 new cases per 100,000 whites. The disparity was even larger in some states, such as Nebraska,Pennsylvania, and Maryland, where the rate of new AIDS cases was more than 10 times as high among black men compared to whites.
• Nationally, Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander men had the lowest rate of health problems and the fewest barriers to access of all subgroups of men, even white men.
• While white men fared better than minority men on most access and social indicators, they had higher rates of some health problems than men of color, such as higher rates of smoking and binge drinking. For example, inWisconsin35 percent of white men reported binge drinking compared with 20 percent of minority men.
• Some of the states with the greatest access disparities between white and minority men included Connecticut, Maine, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Washington, D.C., all of which also exhibited some of the greatest disparities in income between white and minority men. Several states with relatively large Native American populations—Arizona,North Dakota and South Dakota—also had large disparities in access between white and minority men.

The full report, including detailed state-by-state data tables and related fact sheets, is available online.

A companion report released in 2009 examines similar racial and ethnic disparities among women, and includes state fact sheets and interactive data tables, also is available.

For more on decreasing disparities in healthcare, watch the video below on WellPoint’s innovative Community Ambassador Program:

For closed captioning, press the “CC” icon in the YouTube player.

Also read:

Eliminating Healthcare Disparities: How Kaiser Permanente & Trinity Health Close Racial Gaps

The Business Case for Diversity in Healthcare

Can Culturally Competent Healthcare Close Disparities Gaps?

The post What Disease Hits Black Men Most? appeared first on DiversityInc.

Watch the video below to learn more about the history behind this case, which was filed in 2010.

Read also:

Asian Americans Are Fastest-Growing Racial Group

Jeremy Lin & Racism: 3 Ways to Stop Dangerous Stereotypes

Asian-American Heritage Facts & Figures

The post Managers’ Racist Bullying Ends in Hospital Paying $1M Lawsuit appeared first on DiversityInc.

A new study from the Pew Research Center reports that Asian-Americans are now the fastest-growing group of immigrants within the United States. Asian immigrants in 2010 totaled 36 percent; Latinos totaled 31 percent. It is the first time that Latino immigration was not No. 1.

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows similar trends: Between 2000 and 2010, Asian populations experienced the most growth, a 43.3 percent increase to total 14.7 million, or 4.8 percent of the overall population.

Comparatively, the Latino population grew 43.0 percent, the Black population grew 12.3 percent and the white population grew 5.7 percent.

Latinos today make up a significant portion of the current population: They are the second largest group (16.3 percent of the total population) after whites (72.4 percent). By 2050, the Census Bureau projects both Latino and Asian populations to increase. Latinos will total more than 30 percent of the population and Asians will total 7.8 percent.

Trouble viewing the video? Click here to watch the clip at www.usatoday.com.

What It Means for Diversity & Inclusion

The benefits of this demographic shift present companies with several unique benefits to consider in their overall diversity and inclusion strategy:

• Talent Development: Asian immigrants are highly educated, according to the Pew Research Center: 61 percent of adults ages 25–64 have at least a bachelor’s degree, about double any other immigrant group. Look to improve Asian employees’ retention through talent development and cross-cultural mentoring to increase their skillsets. For more on talent-development best practices, watch our diversity web seminar.
• Unique Values: A larger share of Asians (69 percent) believe that hard work will help them get ahead than the overall population (58 percent), and 93 percent describe their group as “very hard-working” people, compared with 57 percent of the general population. Make sure to give these individuals opportunities for growth, such as through resource groups, where exposure to senior management is more likely. For more on resource groups, read New Resource-Group Research: Hourly Workers, Finding Leaders, Counting Membership.

• Buying Power: Median household wealth ($83,500) and median annual household income ($66,000) are the highest among this group. Companies that extend diversity and inclusion to their marketplace strategy and show cultural competency with consumers stand to considerably improve their customer base. Overall median income in the United States is $49,800: whites total $55,000, followed by Latinos ($40,000) and Blacks ($33,000). For more on marketplace connectivity, watch our Diversity Web Seminar on Resource Groups: Connect With Customers for Top Sales Results.

Read our Asian/Pacific Islander American Facts & Figures for more information on Asian-American history and demographics.

The post Asian-Americans Are Fastest-Growing Racial Group appeared first on DiversityInc.

Diversity management is the key to preventing multicultural missteps like this week’s fiasco—a video of Ashton Kutcher in “brown face” portraying an Indian as part of an ad campaign to sell Popchips. 

After a hugely negative social-media response, Popchips removed the ad from Facebook, Twitter and its own website. However, unofficial versions of it remain everywhere. 

The original ad, which you can watch below, was part of Ashton Kutcher’s series of dating-video spoofs, in which he is portrayed as various characters looking for a date. In one scene, he pretends to be a Bollywood producer named Raj. Kutcher has his face painted brown and a bad sing-song accent. Indian Americans on social media were incensed about the portrayal. For example, Anil Dash even wrote a blog demanding Popchips, Kutcher and Alison Brod PR fix the racist ad campaign. 

Kutcher, who owns a minority stake in the privately held Popchips and is its “president of pop culture,” developed the $1.5-million ad campaign with the help of ad agency Zambezi, a Venice, Calif.-based youth-oriented agency as well as Popchips CEO Keith Belling. Kutcher’s previous ad for Popchips, which was featured online in 2011, portrays racial stereotypes against Blacks and Latinos. 

Here’s how to avoid similarly embarrassing and potentially costly mistakes, based on our experience examining the diversity-management success and failures of companies applying to The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list over the past 13 years. 

Diversity-Management Tip No. 1: Use Your Resource Groups as Focus Groups 

As Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, No. 13 in the DiversityInc Top 50, demonstrated at DiversityInc’s first Innovation Fest! in February, resource groups understand their communities and what works – and what’s offensive. Novartis saved more than $1 million in marketing research by asking its motivated resource-group employees to vet its materials. 

Our diversity web seminar on resource groups, featuring Procter & Gamble, No. 5 in the DiversityInc Top 50, and American Express, No. 14, showed exactly how valuable their resource groups were to examining marketplace ideas, including ad campaigns. American Express, which has 16 groups, used its Latino and Asian groups to develop holiday cards that were culturally competent and brought in significant revenue. 

Membership in resource groups of DiversityInc Top 50 Companies has increased dramatically in recent years because these groups are proving their value to the business goals. 

Diversity-Management Tip No. 2: Ensure Moral Values Are Clearly Communicated 

Organizations with clearly stated values, including diversity & inclusion, are less likely to have ambiguous decisions made on any level. Popchips’ website does not include any statement about values and/or diversity. By contrast, all of the DiversityInc Top 50 companies have mission statements mentioning values and diversity on their corporate websites. 

A good example of a company that espouses and lives up to its values is jcpenney (No. 35 in the DiversityInc Top 50). The retailer, and CEO Ron Johnson, stood firmly behind its decision to have Ellen DeGeneres as its spokesperson, even after a protest from an organization that called itself One Million Moms but really had only about 40,000 followers. Read our coverage of this news in Lessons on Values From Ellen & JCPenney. 

For its Mother’s Day catalog, jcpenney is featuring a lesbian couple (one of whom is an actual employee) to make the point that it is an inclusive company. View this photo on Huffington Post. 

For more on clarity of values, read Ask the White Guy: Decision Making, Clarity of Values & What to Do When It Goes Horribly Wrong. 

Diversity-Management Tip No. 3: Make Sure Apologies Come From the Top 

In this case, Popchips gets some credit. While CEO Keith Belling was part of the team that came up with the ad, he has personally apologized for it and seems to get the point. 

On Popchips’ “what’s poppin’” blog, Belling issued this apology: “We received a lot of feedback about the dating campaign parody we launched today and appreciate everyone who took the time to share their point of view. Our team worked hard to create a light-hearted parody featuring a variety of characters that was meant to provide a few laughs. We did not intend to offend anyone. I take full responsibility and apologize to anyone we offended.” 

 CEO commitment is a cornerstone of good diversity management. That also means accepting the responsibility for failures, including multicultural missteps. CEOs who have done this over the years have seen their companies regain credibility.   

For more companies’ multicultural missteps, read ‘I’m Puerto Rican—I’d Be Great at Selling Drugs’; ‘Not Married? She Must Be a Lesbian’ and Lowe’s Muslim Publicity Gaffe Serves as Case Study of What Not to Do.

The post 3 Ways to Avoid Racist Ads Like Ashton Kutcher’s for Popchips appeared first on DiversityInc.

President Jimmy Carter signed a joint resolution in 1978 that declared May 4–10, 1979, as the first Asian Pacific American Heritage Week. This was later extended by President George H.W. Bush in 1990 to a month-long celebration. The month commemorates the arrival of the first Japanese immigrant, a fisherman named Nakanohama Manjiro, or “John Mung,” to the United States on May 7, 1843, and marks the transcontinental railroad’s completion on May 10, 1869.

Click the images below to download a PDF, or click these links to expand: Asian-American Heritage Timeline and Asian-American Fact & Figures.

 1700s–1800s:

1763 First recorded settlement of Filipinos in America in Louisiana

1843 First Japanese immigrants arrive in the United States

1847 Yale’s Yung Wing is the first Chinese person to graduate from a U.S. college

1848 Chinese people migrate to California during the Gold Rush

1854 California bars the entrance of Chinese people to the state

1858 People v. Hall rules that Chinese people cannot give testimony against whites

1865 Chinese workers are hired by the Central Pacific Railroad Company

1869 First transcontinental railroad is completed 1878 Ninth Circuit Court in California declares that Chinese people cannot receive natural citizenship

1879 Laws are passed in California against Chinese employment

1882 Chinese Exclusion Law is passed, which suspends immigration for 10 years

1898 The Philippines declares its independence. The U.S. annexes the Philippines and Hawaii

1898 Wong Kim Ark v. U.S. rules that Chinese people born in the United States are citizens

1900s:

1903 First group of Korean people arrives to work in Hawaii

1905 California Civil Code forbids marriage between Asians and whites

1906 San Francisco excludes Japanese, Korean and Chinese children from public schools

1907 Immigration from India begins

1907 President Theodore Roosevelt’s executive order prevents Japanese/Korean immigration

1922 Takao Ozawa v. U.S. rules that a Japanese person cannot be naturalized

1924 National Origins Act prohibits immigration of most Asians

1941 After the Pearl Harbor attack, Japanese on the Pacific Coast are interned in camps

1943 Congress repeals all Chinese exclusion laws and grants naturalization

1946 The Philippines becomes independent; citizenship is offered to those living in the United States

1946 Wing Ong becomes first Asian person elected to state office in Arizona House of Representatives

1947 President Harry Truman pardons Japanese Americans who resisted draft in internment camps

1949 U.S. severs ties with People’s Republic of China; 5,000 educated Chinese people are granted refugee status

1950 Korean War and second wave of Korean immigration begins

1956 Dalip Singh Saund becomes the first Asian-Indian person elected to Congress

1959 Hawaii becomes the 50th state

1959 Hiram Fong and Daniel K. Inouye become the first Asian-Pacific Americans elected to Congress

1962 Hawaii’s Inouye becomes a senator; Spark Matsunaga becomes a congressman

1964 Patsy Takemoto becomes the first Asian-American woman to serve in Congress

1975 Vietnam War ends; leads to large migration of Southeast Asians to the United States

1979 The first Asian Pacific American Heritage Week is celebrated

1979 Diplomatic relations resume between the People’s Republic of China and the United States

1989 President George H.W. Bush signs into law an entitlement program to pay each surviving Japanese-American internee $20,000

1997 Kalpana Chawla becomes the first Asian Indian astronaut in space

1997 Gary Locke becomes the first Asian-American governor of a mainland state (Washington)

2000 to Present Day:

2000 Norman Mineta becomes the first Asian-American person to hold a Cabinet post

2001 Elaine Chao is appointed secretary of labor

2006 First monument dedicated to Filipino soldiers who fought for the United States in World War II is unveiled

2007 Bobby Jindal becomes the first Indian-American person elected governor (Louisiana)

2009 President Barack Obama appoints the most Asian Americans to Cabinet-level positions (three)

2010 Apolo Anton Ohno becomes the most decorated American Winter Olympian, with eight medals

The post Asian/Pacific Islander American Facts & Figures appeared first on DiversityInc.

Photography by Gary King

An emerging Asian superstar in a Black-dominated sport, basketball wonder Jeremy Lin is suddenly the subject of stereotypes, jokes and racism. Why do fans, commentators and journalists think it’s funny to make Asian jokes? Is Lin’s celebrity at least in part due to his “difference”?

Bigotry in sports is nothing new. From Don Imus’ rant about the Rutgers women’s basketball team to Jimmy the Greek’s infamous claim that Blacks were naturally superior athletes, we’ve seen the furor erupt and the marketplace repercussions.

But this one’s a little different. Lin, if you’ve somehow missed the excitement, is a point guard with the New York Knicks. Despite the presence of big-name athletes like Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire (both Black in a sport where Black players are the majority), the Knicks have been struggling this year. Enter the previously unknown Lin, the American son of Taiwanese immigrants. His heroics, including some amazing last-minute plays, vaulted the team to a seven-game winning streak that ended Friday night and excited fans and sports followers. Yesterday, he led the team to another amazing victory, which has the sports world buzzing.

The controversy erupted when boxer Floyd Mayweather tweeted: “Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he’s Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don’t get the same praise.” FOX Sports columnist Jason Whitlock has already apologized for his tweet, which insulted Lin’s sexual ability, using a negative stereotype about Asians.

To top all this off, Madison Square Garden showed a fan’s video of Lin’s head popping out of a fortune cookie, and fans have taken to calling him “Yellow Mamba,” allegedly a play on Kobe Bryant’s nickname of “Black Mamba.”

And then early Saturday morning, an ESPN commentator and the ESPN mobile website used the phrase “Chink in the Armor” regarding the Knicks’ loss to the Hornets Friday night. ESPN immediately pulled the headline and apologized, but the damage was done. (The ESPN commentator was fired Sunday.)

This was their apology: “Last night, ESPN.com’s mobile web site posted an offensive headline referencing Jeremy Lin at 2:30 am ET. The headline was removed at 3:05 am ET. We are conducting a complete review of our cross-platform editorial procedures and are determining appropriate disciplinary action to ensure this does not happen again. We regret and apologize for this mistake.”

What’s going on and why are stereotypes so dangerous? What can your organization do when someone who’s very different from the majority takes on a major role?

Don’t Wait on Teaching the Power of Words 

As former NBA player John Amaechi, who is gay, told DiversityInc’s audience this fall: “In a world where diversity is important, sometimes people wonder about all the initiatives you can do for diversity, but what you can really do is teach people to really be there when they are talking.” This becomes the opportunity for an understanding that goes beyond stereotypes. Sixty-six percent of The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity have mandatory diversity training for all their employees.

In other words, don’t wait for an incident to occur. Make sure ALL your employees have mandatory cultural-competence training and that managers are vigilant in creating an atmosphere that’s always inclusive.

Education Is Your Most Valuable Tool

Stereotypes are dangerous in every way. They destroy confidence and the ability to work and function successfully. They damage relationships, in the workplace and outside.

The greatest danger is in people accepting these stereotypes, making them “a normative behavior. That’s what happens eventually; behavior shifts and these are no longer the norm,” says Dr. Claude Steele, former provost of Columbia University and now dean of Education at Stanford University.

The best way to diminish the power of stereotypes is by education. As our recent panel on Muslims and stereotypes demonstrates, understanding the reality often changes perceptions.

Values Emanate From the Top 

Your organization’s values must be consistently and emphatically stated from the top. Take the recent example of JCPenney CEO Ron Johnson standing up proudly for the organization’s decision to hire Ellen DeGeneres as a spokesperson.

The organization’s values and mission should be expressed clearly on the website in the mission statement and in the CEO’s statement.

The visibility of the CEO—and the leader’s ability to hold people accountable for results—is most essential in ensuring everyone in the organization understands what’s acceptable and what’s not.

Learn more about what everyone’s been saying about Jeremy Lin and racism:

Jeremy Lin And Racism: Frequently Asked Questions
An SB Nation editor explores the psychological sources and differences in connotations and racial history.

Is This Jeremy Lin Fortune Cookie Graphic Racist? Knicks, MSG Didn’t Think So
Here’s a screen grab of Madison Square Garden’s depiction of Jeremy Lin as good luck in a fortune cookie.

Asian stereotypes appearing in coverage of Knicks’ Jeremy Lin
Madison Square Garden responds to the fortune-cookie image of Lin, saying it was created by a fan, while TV personalities such as David Letterman and Jon Stewart and a FOX Sports columnist also are cited for instances of racism mixed with humor.

Video: David Letterman’s Top 10 Worst Jeremy Lin Puns
From “Super Lin-tendo” to “Amasian,” Lin puns and references are everywhere in the media, many of which tie into his Asian heritage.

Columnist apologizes for racist Lin tweet; is that enough?
A complaint by the Asian American Journalist Association prompts FOX Sports’ Jason Whitlock, a Black man who tweeted a racist Jeremy Lin comment, to give an apology. A reader poll asks, “Is it enough?”

Is Knicks Jeremy Lin Overhyped Because He’s Asian? Floyd Mayweather Thinks So
A part of “Linsanity” is based in Lin’s ethnicity. But is the hype really because he’s Asian, as boxer Floyd Mayweather tweeted, playing a sport that has typically been dominated by Blacks? OpposingViews argues that it’s not.

Jeremy Lin and race: Bigotry in sports is nothing new
From Floyd Mayweather’s tweet to fellow teammates bowing karate-style to Lin after a game-winning shot, the racism toward Lin is nothing new among sports players—and Lin says he’s used to it.

Reaction to Lin’s success shows underlying racism
A San Francisco Gate blog discusses Asian stereotypes and whether Lin’s breakout can change social perceptions of the race and culture.

The Article I Didn’t Want To Write: Jeremy Lin & Racism
Are people more comfortable making puns about Asians than other racial groups? A blogger explores why as well as why people don’t seem to understand the implications and offense it can cause.

Linsanity May Reinforce Racial Stereotypes
Is Jeremy Lin’s story one of an underdog rising to the top, or is it an example of the problem of continuing stereotypes toward what is considered to be racial norms?

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